The young man laughed a little.
'Well, there are other reasons. Now here's a device. Two lions rampant—shield surmounted by a crown; motto, "Sp. nos in Deo." Let us hope in God.'
'Whose motto was that?'
'Just what I can't make out. I don't know the shield—which I ought to know; and the reverse of the coin has only some unintelligible letters: D. Gelriae, 1752. Let us try another, Queen Esther. Ha! here's a coin of William and Mary—both their blessed heads and names; and on the reverse a figure three, and the inscription claiming that over Great Britain, France and Ireland, they were "Rex and Regina." Why, this box of coins is a capital place to study history.'
'I don't know history,' Esther said.
'But you are going to know it.'
'Am I? How can I?'
'Read.'
'I don't know what to read. I have just read a little history of England—that's all. Mother gave me that. But when I read, there are so many things I don't know and want to ask about.'
'Ask the colonel.'